- Letter
Spectroscopic fingerprints of gapless type-II fracton phases
Phys. Rev. B 105, L180416 – Published 31 May, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.105.L180416
Abstract
Fracton phases feature elementary excitations with fractionalized mobility and are exciting interest from multiple areas of theoretical physics. However, the most exotic type-II fracton phases, like the Haah codes, currently have no known experimental diagnostics. Here, we explain how type-II fracton phases with gapless gauge modes, such as the Haah code, may be identified experimentally. Our analysis makes use of the multipole gauge theory description of type-II fracton phases, which exhibits ultraviolet-infrared (UV-IR) mixing. We show that neutron scattering experiments on gapless type-II fracton phases should generically exhibit exotic pinch points in the structure factor, with distinctive anisotropic contours as a direct consequence of UV-IR mixing. This characteristic pinch point structure provides a clean diagnostic of type-II fracton phases. We also identify distinctive signatures of the ()-D Haah code in the low-temperature specific heat.